Common Core State Standards Content Area: English Grade Level: 11-12, Walden by Henry David Thoreau Domain: Reading Standards for Informational Text 6-12 Cluster: Craft & Structure Standard: 6: Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text. Standard 7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
What understandings are desired?
Students will understand that:(U)
• Thoreau had distinct purposes for writing Walden.
• Thoreau uses a wide range of rhetorical devices to help him convey his purpose.
• Thoreau uses his personal experience at Walden Pond to help him convey his purpose.
What essential questions will be considered?
Essential Questions:(Q)
• What were Thoreau's purposes for writing Walden?
• How do the rhetorical devices that Thoreau uses contribute to the power, persuasiveness, and/or beauty of Walden?
• How do Thoreau's personal experiences in Walden contribute to the power, persuasiveness, and/or beauty of the text?
What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?
Students will know:(K)
Students will be able to:(S)
• Thoreau's purposes for writing Walden.
rhetorical devices found in the text (imagery, tone, voice, epigraph, ambiguities, analogies, allegories, allusions, contradictions, irony, paradoxes, parallelism, etc.).
• major themes found within the text (the importance of self-reliance, nonconformity, observation, solitude, independence, awareness, reflection, experimental experience, simplicity, and the illusion of progress).
• show examples of rhetorical devices that are found in Walden.
• make sense of Thoreau's purposes for writing Walden.
• create their own persuasive writing pieces that include a variety of rhetorical devices.
• analyze Thoreau's purposes for writing Walden.
• consider their own personal experiences in relation to Thoreau's personal experience in Walden.
• reflect on their own personal experiences in relation to at least one of the themes found in Walden.
Stage 1 - Identify Desired Results
Content Area: English
Grade Level: 11-12, Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Domain: Reading Standards for Informational Text 6-12
Cluster: Craft & Structure
Standard: 6: Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
Standard 7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
What understandings are desired?
• Thoreau uses a wide range of rhetorical devices to help him convey his purpose.
• Thoreau uses his personal experience at Walden Pond to help him convey his purpose.
What essential questions will be considered?
• How do the rhetorical devices that Thoreau uses contribute to the power, persuasiveness, and/or beauty of Walden?
• How do Thoreau's personal experiences in Walden contribute to the power, persuasiveness, and/or beauty of the text?
What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?
- rhetorical devices found in the text (imagery, tone, voice, epigraph, ambiguities, analogies, allegories, allusions, contradictions, irony, paradoxes, parallelism, etc.).
• major themes found within the text (the importance of self-reliance, nonconformity, observation, solitude, independence, awareness, reflection, experimental experience, simplicity, and the illusion of progress).• make sense of Thoreau's purposes for writing Walden.
• create their own persuasive writing pieces that include a variety of rhetorical devices.
• analyze Thoreau's purposes for writing Walden.
• consider their own personal experiences in relation to Thoreau's personal experience in Walden.
• reflect on their own personal experiences in relation to at least one of the themes found in Walden.
2004 ASCD and Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.